WASHINGTON, March 7: The United States has reaffirmed its determination not to lift sanctions against Iraq until President Saddam Hussein is replaced.``If sanctions are lifted, Saddam Hussein will once again try to impose his will on the Middle East and will threaten his neighbours. It is our responsibility as a leader in the international community to do what we can in order to contain him and prevent him from being able to do that again,'' Bruce Riedel, special assistant to President Bill Clinton for Near East and South Asian affairs, said.The US, he said in an interview to Worldnet, ``looks forward to the day when Saddam Hussein is gone and there is a Government in Iraq that we can work with and that we can help reintegrate into the world community. We will reach out and do all that we can in order to help that Government. But in the interim I think we have to be realistic about this''.On the other hand, in Baghdad, an American weapons inspector at the centre of the latest Gulf crisis, ScottRitter, toured three suspected weapons sites.United Nations spokesman Alan Dacey said, ``All sites were inspected to the satisfaction of the inspection team and with full cooperation of Iraqi authorities.''At least one of the sites was a barrack of the elite Republican Guard, a well-placed source said. Previously the Iraqis have resisted attempts to inspect such quarters. They had stopped providing escorts for Ritter's team, making it impossible for him to enter any site. Iraq had alleged that Ritter was an American spy whose team had a disproportionately high number of Americans and Britons.Meanwhile, a United Nations spokesman said today Iraq and huge arrears that US owes the UN are expected to be on the top of the agenda when Secretary General Kofi Annan meets Clinton and senior lawmakers in Washington next week.``It is not clear yet whether there will be many meetings with members of the Congress but the Secretary General plans a second visit to Washington after the Congressional Easter recessfor the specific purpose of consulting with members of the Congress,'' he said.
